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Global Chillage Ambient music used to be simple. As on the pioneering Brian Eno records of the early '80s, most of it consisted of a steady electronic stream of burps...Global ChillagePop Ambient music used to be simple. As on the pioneering Brian Eno records of the early '80s, most of it consisted of a steady electronic stream of burps...1995-06-02

Ambient music used to be simple. As on the pioneering Brian Eno records of the early ’80s, most of it consisted of a steady electronic stream of burps and bleeps over a subtle (or nonexistent) rhythmic bed. The music traversed that ultrathin line between being innovative and yet utterly banal, and you either loved it or hated it for that quality.

Ambient is no longer an underground phenomenon. Two years ago, the French Musical duo known as Deep Forest merged easy-listening ambient ooze with Pygmy chanting. Called Deep Forest, the album — meditative music for the media-overload age — became a left-field cult hit. It demonstrated the genre isn’t a musical dead-end street, while pinpointing the conundrum of ambient music in the ’90s: How do you continue to make intentionally boring chill-out music interesting? If you’re Irresistible Force, you make it as sexy as ambient goes. The subtly ingratiating, loopy Global Chillage sounds like transmissions from an especially mellow UFO. Perfect music for cleaning the vortex chamber. B